RE Help splitting CVS data

[Alister]

On Sun, 20 Jan 2013 16:41:12 -0800, Garry wrote:

> On Sunday, January 20, 2013 3:04:39 PM UTC-7, Garry wrote:
>> I'm trying to manipulate family tree data using Python.
>> 
>> I'm using linux and Python 2.7.3 and have data files saved as Linux
>> formatted cvs files
>> 
>> The data appears in this format:
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> Marriage,Husband,Wife,Date,Place,Source,Note0x0a
>> 
>> Note: the Source field or the Note field can contain quoted data (same
>> as the Place field)
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> Actual data:
>> 
>> [F0244],[I0690],[I0354],1916-06-08,"Neely's Landing, Cape Gir. Co,
>> MO",,0x0a
>> 
>> [F0245],[I0692],[I0355],1919-09-04,"Cape Girardeau Co, MO",,0x0a
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> code snippet follows:
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> import os
>> 
>> import re
>> 
>> #I'm using the following regex in an attempt to decode the data:
>> 
>> RegExp2 =
>> "^(\[[A-Z]\d{1,}\])\,(\[[A-Z]\d{1,}\])\,(\[[A-Z]\d{1,}\])\,(\d{,4}\-\d
{,2}\-\d{,2})\,(.*|\".*\")\,(.*|\".*\")\,(.*|\".*\")"
>> 
>> #
>> 
>> line = "[F0244],[I0690],[I0354],1916-06-08,\"Neely's Landing, Cape Gir.
>> Co, MO\",,"
>> 
>> #
>> 
>> (Marriage,Husband,Wife,Date,Place,Source,Note) = re.split(RegExp2,line)
>> 
>> #
>> 
>> #However, this does not decode the 7 fields.
>> 
>> # The following error is displayed:
>> 
>> Traceback (most recent call last):
>> 
>>   File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module>
>> 
>> ValueError: too many values to unpack
>> 
>> #
>> 
>> # When I use xx the fields apparently get unpacked.
>> 
>> xx = re.split(RegExp2,line)
>> 
>> #
>> 
>> >>> print xx[0]
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> >>> print xx[1]
>> 
>> [F0244]
>> 
>> >>> print xx[5]
>> 
>> "Neely's Landing, Cape Gir. Co, MO"
>> 
>> >>> print xx[6]
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> >>> print xx[7]
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> >>> print xx[8]
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> Why is there an extra NULL field before and after my record contents?
>> 
>> I'm stuck, comments and solutions greatly appreciated.
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> Garry
> 
> Thanks everyone for your comments.  I'm new to Python, but can get
> around in Perl and regular expressions.  I sure was taking the long way
> trying to get the cvs data parsed.
> 
> Sure hope to teach myself python.  Maybe I need to look into courses
> offered at the local Jr College!
> 
> Garry

don't waste time at college (at least not yet) there are many good 
tutorials available on the web.
as you are already an experienced programmer "Dive into Python" would not 
be a bad start & the official python tutorial is also one not to miss




-- 
"Just think of a computer as hardware you can program."
-- Nigel de la Tierre